Sondra Perl, "The Composing Processes of Unskilled College Writers": Tony's Demographic and Personal Identity

"Tony was [in Fall 1975-Spring 1976] a 20-year-old ex-Marine born and raised in the Bronx, New York.  Like many Puerto Ricans born in the United States, he was able to speak Spanish but he considered English his native tongue.  In the eleventh grade [in 1972], Tony left high school, returning three years later [in Summer-Fall of 1975?] to take the New York State high school equivalency exam.  As a freshman in college, he was also working part-time to support a child and a wife from whom he was separated" (Perl 46).

April 25, 1975, "Operation Frequent Wind," Marines at the U.S. Embassy in Saigon assist in the evacuation of all "Westerners" and some Vietnamese from the city ahead of the advancing North Vietnamese Army.  For a 3-minute video report by a BBC reporter click here.  For a distinctly partisan and more graphic account by John Pilger, click here.

May 12-15, 1975, the S.S. Mayaguez, a U.S. flagged container ship, is captured by the Khmer Rouge and released by U.S. Marines, Airmen and Sailors, May 12-15, 1975 at the cost of 15 Marines and Air Force killed in action, 23 killed in operational accidents, 3 executed by the Khmer Rouge, and 50 wounded.  For video of the CBS News investigative report (2000), click here.

October 30, 1975, in the midst of a massive, nation-wide recession, New York City nearly defaults on its budget as President Ford and the Congress refuse a "bail-out" package.  Click here for the first page w/abstract of Phyllis Moen's "Family Impacts of the 1975 Recession: Duration of Unemployment," Journal of Marriage and the Family 41:3 (August 1979) 561-72,   Note especially the unemployment rates she cites at the start and end of that recession.  For reference sake, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, as of August 2011 the U.S. unemployment rate was 9.1%.  Could this be relevant to tutoring Goucher writers?